"state of the union with candy crowley" starts right now. double trouble for the administration, benghazi and the irs. today, the irs admits its agents targeted tea party groups for extra scrutiny. >> i don't think you accidentally focus on the tea party, but it wouldn't be the first time the irs has been used for political purposes. >> our sunday exclusive with republican susan collins. >> the irs has done everything possible to deny access to the information that would outline the truth. >> before, after and during the attack thomas pickering was part of the panel that looks into it all. he joins us with his take.

and a shocking pentagon report estimating more than 25,000 sexual assaults are committed every year in the military. >> this is not only a crime against a victim, this is a betrayal to your unit. >> the problem and the fix with two iraq war veterans now serving on capitol hill. hawaii's tulsy gabbert. and our panel on the irs, rand paul and hillary clinton. i'm candy crowley, and this is "state of the union." joining me now senator susan collins of maine. thank you, senator collins, for being here. here's what we know so far about the irs. we will have an inspector generals report some time next week. we'll told in that report will show an irs official has said in fact, yes, there was extra scrutiny or singling out of groups with the words tea party or patriot in it as far back as

2011 we are told. senior officials knew this at the irs and didn't tell congress. we are also told by the director of these tax exempt organizations inside the irs that this was done as a shortcut and not out of "political bias." is this passing the smell test for you? >> not at all. this is truly outrageous. and it contributes to the profound distrust that the american people have in government. it is absolutely chilling that the irs was singling out conservative groups for extra review. and i think that it's very disappointing that the president hasn't personally condemned this and spoken out. his spokesman has said it should be investigated, but the president needs to make crystal clear that this is totally unacceptable in america. >> the white house did put out a

thing saying this doesn't meet the standards, if it doesn't meet the standards of government officials should be backed and taken they blame a small group of agents, but the fact remains that any time you mention the irs -- by the way, tea party groups complained about this at the time. and we should just explain to our viewers that groups get tax exempt status as social interest groups. if they're involved in politics, they don't get the same tax exempt status and that's what this part of the irs does. in sort of reiterating what you said "the washington post" said it was appalling to learn friday that the irs improperly target conservative groups for scrutiny. it was almost as disturbing president obama treasury secretary jack lew have not personally apologized to the american people and promised a full investigation".

>> i don't buy this was a couple rogue irs employees. after all, groups with progressive in their names were not targeted similarly. there's evidence that higher level supervisors were aware of this. and the irs was not forthcoming in telling congress about the problem. if it had been just a small group of employees, then you would think that the high level irs supervisors would have rushed to make this public, fired the employees involved and apologize to the american people and informed congress. none of that happened in a timely way. >> one of the things we should mention is that the head of the irs did come up at some point, i believe last year or the year before, and said, no, we are not targeting folks for political reasons ever. he was a bush-appointee, so that does mix up the politics a bit. and we should say there's no evidence linking him to knowing

about this. we only know that senior officials according to some of what we've seen about this inspector general, we only know senior officials and not necessarily the director at the time. >> that's true, but it's evident that some senior officials did know about it and have known about it for some time. the allegations go back at least two years. so that is very troubling. >> let me turn you to boston and something senator joe lieberman, who you've worked with very closely to put together the homeland security department and try to put together an entire structure that in fact connected dots. this is something he said, i think, testifying on capitol hill recently about boston. >> from what i've learned over the years about home-grown islamist terrorism, i believe that though it would not have been easy, it was possible to

have prevented the terrorist attacks in boston. >> do you think it was possible to have prevented the terrorist attacks? >> it's very difficult to know. i worked very closely with joe lieberman and have enormous respect for his views. and we held a series of hearings on the growing threat of home-grown terrorists. i believe that better information sharing might have allowed us to prevent this attack. first of all, i don't think there was aggressive enough follow-up when the russians first alerted the fbi to the fact that these two brothers were becoming increasingly radicalized. now, we don't get tips from the russians every day. this isn't like the canadians or the brits. >> flags should have gone up you think. >> absolutely. a huge one. >> let me ask you about something one of your colleagues, senator inhouse said on the radio lately.

he was talking not just about what happened in benghazi now, but about the e-mails afterwards and the changing of the talking points. as you know there's a hearing on the house side about benghazi. here's what senator inhofe had to say. >> may be using the i word before long. >> you mean impeachment? >> yeah. this is clearly an orchestrated cover-up. >> do you see something in benghazi either in the handling before, during or after with the talking points that were scrubbed that the i-word, the impeachment word should come up? >> i don't at this point i will say. but that doesn't mean that these allegations aren't serious. joe lieberman and i did a preliminary investigation into the events into the attacks on benghazi last fall. and we had a career cia agent

who was the woman who first drafted the very first talking points tell us that there was no national security reason for the line about the links to al qaeda to have been dropped from the talking points. so clearly politics was at play here. >> if that is so, is it not a cover-up on a scale of -- i mean, why do you think they would do this? do you think it was to help the president get elected? >> i believe that because we were in the midst of the final weeks of a very contentious presidential re-election campaign that one of the themes of this administration was that libya was a success, that the military invention had produced a stable pro-united states country that was moving toward democracy and that al qaeda was on the run. and what happened in benghazi

proved that neither of those narratives was accurate. >> as you know, there have been those ambassador pickering among others who said i learned nothing new in the hearings this week. did you learn anything new about benghazi? and what don't you know you want to know? >> i did learn something new. there were further it rations and changes in the talking points than i've been aware of. in addition, the whole discussion of whether or not help could have been sent in time is a discussion that joe lieberman and i had, but which congressman issa took to a new and important level. i think it's extraordinary that the head of -- general ham told our committee he had no idea how many americans were even in benghazi and would need to be evacuated if something happened even though he is the person who

would be in charge of the evacuation. and we have to remember that there were many hours between the first attack and the latter attack. i don't think we could have gotten help there in time to save the ambassador and the information officer, but i do believe help could have been sent in time to prevent the further deaths. and indeed there was a plane from tripoli of very brave security officers coming to benghazi who were held up by the libyans for three hours at the airport. and we still don't have a good answer as to why. >> so more investigation as far as your concerned is needed? >> absolutely. >> senator susan collins, thanks for joining us. >> thank you. >> up next, while republicans focused on hillary clinton in the benghazi hearings, an accountability review board that investigated the attack declined to single out the former secretary of state for what went wrong. the man who led that inquiry,

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joining me now ambassador thomas pickering, chair of the state department's accountability review board on the benghazi terror attacks. ambassador, thank you so much for joining us. it's been a busy week on a topic that you have delved into in some depth. so i want to ask you first about your reaction to the criticism that the accountability review

board has had. chairman issa said that it was either incomplete or in fact just wrong. can you respond to that first? >> well, i'm waiting to see whether there's any there there, candy. i've looked at it very carefully. i've listened to the hearings. a number of the criticisms were not based on the actual happenings. we did of course see the secretary. we saw secretary byrnes, we interviewed pat kennedy, a number of the questions they raise raised, were we capable and were we complete? and i believe that we still were. i'm kind of waiting to hear the number of things that greg hicks raised. we interviewed greg, i admire greg, he did a very great job under difficult circumstances. answered himself, were the airplanes there, could they come, could they be there in time? he already indicated that the

defense attache told him was not possible. any report is subject to being reviewed, to being criticized and all the rest. i welcome that, but i don't yet see it. >> and the main question -- i want to play something for you. and this was greg hicks, former deputy chief of mission in libya. and he was asked about could help have been sent. he mentioned this group that was in the embassy in libya that wanted to go to the mission in benghazi. here's the question. >> how did the personnel react at being told to stand down? >> they were furious. i can only say -- well, i will quote lieutenant cornell gibson, he said this is the first time in my career that a diplomat has more [ bleep ] than somebody in the military. >> here's the bottom line question, were there military

assets anywhere that could have saved these men? the implication here is that there was, that possibly lives did not need to be lost had the military acted more quickly. >> that group would have arrived after everybody had left the benghazi airport, but a few. the airport was secured. there were 80 according to the system libyan armored vehicles and people there securing the airport. >> the airport in benghazi. >> which was the extensable reason for going. they were helpful to treating the wounded when they arrived. candy, we looked at that very thoroughly. mike mullen, who was part of this report and indeed worked very closely with all of us and shared many of the responsibilities directly with me made it very clear that his view as a former chairman of the joint chiefs of staff that there were nothing within range that could have made a difference.

>> but of course the military would have been responsible for that. but the military opinion is nobody could have gone in there. >> that's correct. and general dempsey, his successor repeated that in hearings. >> there was a question whether they could do a flyover just to scramble some of these. >> the closest flyover possibility was identified in northern italy 1,600 miles away. that was given a two to three-hour possibility. but it also would require aircraft tankers to refuel those aircraft, and they were not available. >> the other complaint was that this report of yours -- accountability review board, only went so far. you did heavily criticize the state department for not responding to what had been obvious threats and obviously unsettled conditions particularly in benghazi but in libya as a whole, but only went so far as the assistant secretary that the buck really stops with secretary of state hillary clinton. is that not true? and why didn't you discuss this with her?

>> the buck stopped. she'd already made it clear that the buck stopped with her. we were interested in where the decisions were made. and she did not make the security decisions that we felt -- >> was that a problem, do you think? >> no, not at all. i think it was behind the legislation. we looked in to what the congress was saying at the time it passed the legislation to set up the process. and they said it is traditional for heads of agencies to take responsibility then nobody goes down and finds where the decisions were made. and that's what we'd like to see. and we would like to have people held responsible for those performance in those decisions. >> what do you make of the back and forth on the talking points which we know were scrubbed of any kind of mention of terror and certainly when u.n. secretary rice came on this show and four others it was all about this tape and that's what they thought at the time. what do you make of that? >> candy, that was not in our mandate. we were looking into security, security warnings, security

capacity, those kinds of things. so i have been very clear since it wasn't our mandate, i didn't do the investigation. and i'm not prepared or able to give you a thought on that. >> did you learn anything new in the hearings this week that you did not know at the accountability review board? >> i would say yes because i'm always interested in seeing what's new. i honestly did not. >> as far as you are concerned you think benghazi has been investigated and that information put out to the public as thoroughly as possible? >> no. because the fbi is responsible for the criminal investigation. and that's ongoing. and i think you have to separate the two. ours was securities. theirs is criminal. that is yet to be done. we may find out much more. they're obviously interested in who perpetrated this, for what reasons? were they criminally culpable under u.s. law? those kinds of things, yep. >> okay. ambassador pickering, thanks for coming, appreciate it.

up next, stunning and disturbing numbers of sexual assaults in the u.s. military. >> bottom line is i have no tolerance for this. i have communicated this to the secretary of defense.

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a new report on sexual assaults in the military paints such an alarming picture, even the secretary of defense seems worried about his department's ability to fix it. >> this department may be nearing a stage where the frequency of this crime and the perception that there is tolerance of it could very well undermine our ability to effectively carry out the mission. >> the troubling development is sparking outrage and a flurry of proposed legislative fixes on capitol hill, including one that would take sexual assault complaints outside the chain of command, which is a fundamental feature of military life. the idea is opposed by the pentagon and some leading voices on capitol hill, but it sounds about right to our next guests, two women who are members of

congress and war veterans. tammy duckworth, one of the first women in the army to fly combat missions. she lost both legs when the blackhawk helicopter she co-piloted was hit by a rocket propelled grenade. and tulsy gabbert was handsling logistics and operations for 3,000 troops. captain gabbert and lieutenant duckworth were both elected to congress last november. they continue to serve in their national guard units. congresswoman gabbert and duckworth on the culture, reasons and remedies to stop military assaults, next. ♪ [ female announcer ] from more efficient payments. ♪ to more efficient pick-ups. ♪ wireless is limitless.

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-- preventing sexual assault and taking disciplinary actions when it happens seems to me is a very high priority for us. >> the number of sexual assaults in the military is unacceptable. >> it's a threat to the safety and welfare of our people and the health, reputation and trust of this institution. >> there will be accountability.

if people have engaged in this behavior, they should be prosecuted. >> joining me are two congresswomen who are also iraq war veterans, tulsi gabbard of hawaii, tammy duckworth of illinois. congresswomen, thank you so much for joining us. >> good to be here. >> you heard as we came into this section from our military leaders for more than a decade this has been a problem. and it is only increasing. we saw where reported rapes are up, the number of people who don't report them but say they have been at least the victims of unwanted sexual contact. what's wrong here? >> it's absolutely unacceptable, candy. i want the military to be a place where women can succeed and thrive the way i was able to. and the military leadership at this point have shown that they have not been capable of fixing this problem. >> not only that, but not been capable for a decade plus. >> absolutely. >> there's no more excuses. >> there is no excuses. it's not enough just to say this is not something we'll stand for, we'll hold these people

accountable unless you're providing a system and process to actually do that. and i think there are two things we really need to look at. what is the core reason why this hasn't really gotten better over the years? one being we have to make sure it's a victim-centered response from the moment the victim makes that report all the way through the point where the perpetrator is prosecuted, charged and punished. and secondly, making sure we are investigating those who are retaliating and abusing their positions of command or power. >> a huge number of women who said they did report said they also felt retaliation careerwise or otherwise. >> this issue is a power issue, it's not a sex issue. it's a power issue. >> in a culture that's built on power and rank. >> it is. but, you know, the military because it's built on power and rank has the ability to fix it based on that same tradition of power and rank. commanders can put an end to this. and i am very, very disturbed that they have not been able to do this. look, we're both still serving. we're taking the courses and the

classes the military is mandating. something is breaking down between the coursework that's happening and the education that's happening and what actually happens when somebody reports a problem. and that's where we need to be fixed. because after ten years, you have not solved the problem, done. we need to do something and we need to come up with a different system. >> did you see or feel or know anything within this culture when you were serving? >> it has kpiexisted. it's hard to be in the military without being aware of it. during my first deployment to iraq there was a heightened state of awareness because of incidences that were rising in the camp where we were. and we were trained and briefed at our level as soldiers on things to be aware of, travel in battle buddy teams, don't walk out alone even on the camp where theoretically you should be safe. >> where your colleagues are. >> exactly. >> did you feel it? do you know? it just seems that the culture somehow seems ripe for this in a

way that's kind of inexplicable. >> i think my experience was a little bit different in that i was an officer. your first tour you were e-4. so the rank structure was a little bit different. i had a lot more power that came with me and i was able to exercise that. this goes back to empowering the female service members to stand up, to know that when they speak up that they will be listened to and they will be treated fairly. >> how do you do that? >> these predators seek out people who are weak targets. >> yes. >> i was not a weak target. it's not something i experienced personally. however, my command was one that was -- that did create this safe climate for people to be able to make those kinds of reports. but you can't make it based on, you know, the personalities or the strengths or weaknesses of any system commander, which is why the system has to be one that is safe, transparent and fair holding people accountable. >> so what is evident is that people are afraid to report. and what's being reported isn't being dealt with at a great

percentage. tell me a couple of key things that must happen. because it sounds to me that both of you have lost faith in the military justice system being able to handle this. >> right. and, you know, candy, i am an absolute supporter of the uniform code of military justice and the commander, having been a commander and at times i was the only woman in an all-male unit being a commander that has full commander authority over your unit. but i think at this point in this instance of military sexual tra ma, military sexual assault, the military has shown it's not capable of fixes this problem. >> this is a big deal in the military, congresswoman gabbard, to take something out of the chain of command. that is the holy grail of military life. >> this is serious. we're talking about the commander, right? someone has the ability to have that trust and confidence of their unit in them and their ability to lead and command and have that power, but understanding this is something that falls outside of that realm

and also something that requires a check and balance so that there is not a single person who will be in a position to abuse that power that they have been entrusted with, which is huge. you're taking care of soldiers, you're taking care of service members. and having that independent investigative body as well as having someone outside the chain of command who doesn't have the power -- the commander should not have the power to overturn a jury's verdict. >> in these serious cases like this. >> exactly. >> and, again, this goes back, candy, to i think -- i've been a supporter of the system -- of the ucmj until this point. but this is such an aberration, this is horrendous, it's so unacceptable that this is time to take a next very serious step. >> so by serious steps, a, this chain of command thing you would no longer take a complaint of sexual advancement. let's say a good number of these are men as well. >> almost half. >> nonetheless, you could take this. you don't take this to your

commander, you take this to an outside independent review still within the military and the commander could not overturn -- >> the outcome of the investigation or the outcome of the judicial process. >> and if you are found in the military to be guilty of sexual assault, unwanted sexual contact, rape, whatever degree you want, should you be thrown out of the military? >> yeah. it would be a serious -- if you're found guilty of rape or sexual assault, you should be thrown out. that's a serious charge. >> dishonorable discharge, something that will stick with this person for the rest of their lives. it doesn't just stick to military career, any other job they try to get, this will be on their record. >> a federal job, state job, that will be there. >> that's right. >> let me ask you, we have this incident where an air force officer who is in charge of the sexual assault unit was arrested himself for sexual assault. we know nothing's been proven yet. your first reaction to hearing that news. >> i just -- >> shocked.

>> nightmare. this is -- it's a betrayal of trust. >> that's right. >> the military has said we're going to fix this problem. and we've seen the military try to fix this problem because we serve. and yet you appointed someone who is supposed to be fixing a problem who is a perpetrator, who is a predator. and this is not acceptable. >> completely undermines that trust that tammy's talking about. the trust that we're trying to build with this climate of understanding that you can safely go and report when you've been a victim of a heinous crime. and this really undermines whatever progress has been made over time. >> so, you know, discipline, honor, country, all of those things seem to me betrayed -- taking away not been yet convicted of anything. >> right. >> but it just seems this seems to be a bad thing to do in society, but in the military -- >> this is a betrayal. this is not only a crime against the victim, this is a betrayal

to your unit, this is a betrayal to your nation. it is a betrayal to the entire structure. and that is simply not acceptable. i want women to serve. as women rise through the ranks because we can now serve in combat, we're going to get more women in leadership positions and i hope that will help as well. >> yeah. >> but, you know, this just has to be stamped out now. >> absolutely. >> first things you all say is take it out of the chain of command and second of all nobody can overturn the conviction. >> and having that victim-centered response. i think that's critical from start to finish making sure that that culture is there, that safe and transparent and accountable. >> congresswoman tulsi gabbard and tammy duckworth, thank you for being here. come back. we'll keep track of this. >> thank you. >> aloha. >> thank you. >> when we return, the brothers of accused cleveland kidnapper ariel castro speak exclusively to cnn. and rand paul taking the fight to hillary clinton. our visionary cloud infrastructure,

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before we get to our panel, a look at the day's headlines. the brothers of accused cleveland kidnapper and rapist ariel castro are speaking out in an interview with cnn's martin savidge airing tomorrow morning. pedro and onil castro say they are grateful three women and 6-year-old girl are now free and safe. cleveland police say ariel castro's brothers had nothing to do with the abductions. a cleveland p.r. firm that specializes in crisis management is expected to issue a statement on behalf of all three kidnapping survivors this morning. the firm is representing the women pro bono. amanda berry, gina dejesus and michelle knight, have not spoken since they were rescued almost a week ago. a woman says she didn't provoke the dog and was treated by paramedics. tsa and atlanta police are investigating the incident. when we return, the irs versus

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i hope they see someone building a better life. vo: living better: that's the real walmart. ...and we inspected his brakes for free. -free is good. -free is very good. [ male announcer ] now get 50% off brake pads and shoes at meineke. joining me now, democratic strategi strategist thank you all for joining us. little something here on the irs -- new irs statement on the targeting of groups with the name tea party or patriot in their name. in the timeline it shows as early as 2011 senior officials knew this. the irs has just put out a statement saying irs senior leadership was not aware of this level of specific details at the

time of the march 2012 hearing when the commissioner told congress that there was no targeting of people. the timeline does not contradict the commissioner's testimony. while exempt organization officials knew of the situation earlier, the timeline reflects the irs senior leadership did not have this level of detail. the timeline supports what the irs acknowledged on friday that mistakes were made. there were not partisan reasons behind this. let's begin with mistakes were made. it has such a ring because there's no kind of ownership of mistakes were made. there's no subject matter to this sentence. how big a deal is this? >> well, i think it's a blow for the president. you know, the irs's slogan should not be we've got all it takes to take all you've got. and this is the coercive power of government, the president and the state of the union from then on has made the case government is this big warm fuzzy thing is all of us working together as a community. and here we see the other face of government, big old top down

coercive power which is easily runs amuck. so politically this undermines his message. >> and can they get some distance out of this? i mean, you have to admit carl levin, democrat from michigan said we have to look into this. this is not a great situation. they say, look, it was a small group of agents. it certainly wasn't some, you know, irs-wide thing. nonetheless it does sort of feed into republican story lines about what the obama administration is all about, big government. >> yeah. this is going to be a tremendous fund raising opportunity for republicans and tea party organizations all across the country. they're going to feed on this. but i do think there is universal concern with this. you do see democratic members on the hill raising concern with this. you saw the white house, you saw jay carney yesterday in his briefing say, you know, no, this isn't cool. this is something we've got to look at and figure out what went wrong. so i do think still early in this process but i do think there can be -- there should be investigation. and if it can be isolated to

just a few people, i think the administration ends up being okay on this. >> we have what we call legs to a story. does it have legs? meaning will it play out over time in the headlines? some are suggesting that up against benghazi people understand and sort of relate to the irs coming in and, you know, looking at your books and that this might be more powerful. >> and while we don't know who knew what and when, the fact is the irs in particular has a history most infamously with richard nixon but going back to fdr's vendetta against andrew melon of being an agency that presidents have used to harass and punish their enemies. now, there were a lot of reforms passed after watergate that were supposed to make the agency more independent and accountable, but, again, it's the historic echoes i think that give this a real resonance and really do suggest the white house better get out ahead of this.

>> and we should mention that a bush appointee was running the irs during the time -- first of all, he's the one that gave the testimony that said there's no targeting going on. no evidence at this point. we know so little, but it was a bush appointee. we need to point that out. move you to the other big story this week, which is benghazi. in particular alex, if you will for me, the democrats are pushing back very hard on this saying nothing new. there's nothing new out there. this is all about politics. so i want to play for you rand paul something he said in iowa this week discussing hillary clinton's former head of the state department. >> they're asking for security. they're pleading for security. and they got nothing. it was inexcusable. it was a dereliction of duty. and it should preclude her from holding out her office. >> now, while i'm asking you this question i want to put up an nrcc, a republican campaign

committee, an ad they put up asking for funds saying, you know, we're after benghazi. is it smart to go after substantive things with rand paul in iowa attacking hillary and the nrc raising funds off of it. isn't that a mixed message? >> sometimes you undermine your motive that you really want -- a fair investigation. not yet. politics is also how we govern our governors. it's the only control we have. so, when government fails, the political arena is the place that we want to expose something and bring it to people's attention. and this is bad news for hillary clinton. this could be what mission accomplished was for george bush. what difference does it make could be for hillary clinton. three bad mistakes here. she didn't look after the people under her care in benghazi. she either allowed or encouraged or didn't know about a cover up and then she marked it with a

youtube moment and those things last and travel in politics. this is going to make it very tough for her in 2016. >> youtube is pretty unforgiving. you work for hillary clinton. does this make life difficult for her? >> look, are there going to be questions about this? probably. there should be. this is an issue that is serious. should not be a political issue, though. and that is what the republicans are doing right now. just this morning, darrell issa says we're not targeting barack obama, we're not targeting hillary clinton. that ad up there had a picture of barack obama and hillary clinton. rand paul going to a republican dinner and making it about hillary clinton's perspective presidential campaign when no one knows if she is planning on running for president, it just makes the point that this really is political. add to that the fact that there isn't anything new that came out in recent days and these guys are just struggling to pin this

on her in order to score political points. >> really quickly, alex -- >> just really hard to imagine the obama administration is criticizing anyone else for being critical and this campaign has been on the stump campaigning about everything. >> where does it go from here? has it damaged hillary? will it damage hillary clinton, should she decide to run? >> i think that, you know, it's going to be difficult for any democrat. there's sort of a history of a country not giving a presence, in essence, a third term. but, yes, i do think this is going to come back and haunt her again and again. and i disagree. there have been some new details that have come out on the kind of furious infighting that was happening and the fact that the first impulse was to protect the state department. >> was it, you know, it was about politics, but does seem to be about internal state department politics not to "get thrown under the bus" by the cia. thanks for joining us.

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nchsh finally this morning, from our getting to know web series. a salute to a nonpartisan group of people with extraordinary influence on the country's future. moms. we start with condoleezza rice who talked to us about growing up in the segregated south. >> my mother and i went to buy an easter dress and we went into one of the big department stores and the lady said, the sales lady said she'll have to try it on in there and pointed to a store room and my mother said, looking her dead in the eye, either she tries this dress on in the fitting room or we don't buy it. >> i was offered a job and she gave me a big nudge to take that job. >> what was the defining thing for you?

>> a mother of unconditional lo love. a woman of an indominable spirit to overcome. >> not only that she told us to turn off the tv and start reading books, but she was always sort of struggling to try to learn how to read herself or, you know, she made us think that she couldn't read. >> my mother used to put hot water bottles in bed to keep us warm and those post-war years in europe were interesting to watch the recovery. >> my mother used to say one of the many things she would say is, you know, you may be the first to do many things, but make sure you're not the last. >> my mother started a business in our house to support us and she taught dancing and decorum and it was the demint dance and

decorum. thhing was to be called downstairs to dance with someone who was 50 years old. >> i got out of the navy and within a couple months we built up so much business we had to start late at night, which is good except my mom said don't sell any more doughnuts, rick. >> my mother, my mother gave me a cup of instant coffee probably when i was 10, 9 or 10 years old and i hated it. >> my mother was so spectacular. she knew women were capable of more things. every day if she lived now what she would be. >> from this mom to my mom and all the mothers out there watching, a very happy mother's day to you, thank you for watching "state of the union." i'm candy crowley in washington. head to cnn.com/sotu for analysis and extras, including our getting to know interview with susan collins on her strategic reasons for getting married in august. if you missed any part of today's show, you can find us on itunes. just search state of the union.

fareed zakaria gps is next for our viewers here in the united states. welcome to a special edition of "gps beyond the manhunt, how to stop terror." >> an operation that killed osama bin laden. >> just two years ago that navy s.e.a.l.s in pakistan spoke the words geronimo and that meant osama bin laden was finally dead. today the fight continues. as we saw boyleston street in boston. stepping back from the